Injury-plagued former Leaf ready to turn it around this season and put his health struggles behind him
Pro hockey players are professionals, but they're also human beings, so when injury issues get in the way of them doing what they love, it can really begin to weigh on them. Such is the case for former Leaf Nick Foligno.
Foligno was acquired by the Leafs at the 2021 trade deadline, but was limited to just 7 regular season games and 4 playoff games for the Buds due to a debilitating back injury. The Amazon Prime All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs series covered the injury and Foligno's disappointment over not being able to give the Leafs his absolute best.
The price that the Leafs paid to bring in Foligno wasn't the price a team would be willing to pay for just 11 total games and, as irritated as Leafs Nation was with the situation, nobody was more disappointed than Foligno, whose body basically quit on him at the worst possible time. None of us were going to get a Stanley Cup ring had the Leafs done the thing. Foligno would have.
While Foligno was amenable to the idea of returning to Toronto the following summer, the money just didn't work and he, instead, inked a 2-year deal with the Boston Bruins worth $3.8M per season. Unfortunately for the 34-year-old, the injury bug hit him again in 2021-22, limiting him to just 64 games. Now, coming into 2022-23, Foligno feels re-invigorated, telling The Athletic's Fluto Shinzawa that he feels "young again".
You have so much pride. For me, it was just a matter of fighting through, and not even so much the outside negativity. I'm very hard on myself. I'm sure with the fans or whoever, I was more disappointed that I couldn't deliver what I was expected to deliver. Not to beat myself up. I still think there was good pockets. It's just not the standard I was expecting of myself."
For the full range of Foligno's comments, be sure to check out Shinzawa's full article here:
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 13 | 156 ANSWERS Injury-plagued former Leaf ready to turn it around this season and put his health struggles behind him How many points will Nick Foligno rack up this season? | ||
| 40 or less | 113 | 72.4 % |
| 41-50 | 16 | 10.3 % |
| 51-60 | 14 | 9 % |
| 60+ | 13 | 8.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
